Trip Report "Don't anger the dolls"-A France and DLP Trip, June '18-COMPLETED (4/22-ride comparisons)

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like you had a nice morning with your brother! Though I'm sorry your parents ended up getting frustrated with you.

Beautiful pics of Notre Dame!

 

[Woth2982]

I am with you on the art. Part of me thinks the reason I didn't love Paris is because we went to like no less than 3 art muesums a day in an 8 day stretch, except for the one day we went to Versailles. I LOVED Versailles. I would have been fine with just going to the Louvre and calling it a day. I did however enjoy Notre Dame! I agree though, you don't need a ton of time to view it.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love French bakery yum!

Glad you got to see the library with the very interesting architecture, wow!

I have been to Paris, never saw that!

Glad your family all found each other, even with a little drama lol!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

While the Centre Pompidou is actually home to a huge public library, modern art museum, and centre for music and acoustic research, all I really cared about was the building itself. It was originally designed in 1971 and is truly revolutionary, with its basic skeleton exposed and huge tubed escalators up the outside of the building make it super recognizable. Everything is also color coded, with green pipes for plumbing, blue ducts for climate control, yellow conduits for electrical, and red for safety and circulation elements. I think nearly every engineering textbook I've ever used has had a photo of this building in it!

The engineering building here at Queen's University has a similar concept. When you go inside you can see the skeleton as you described.

So, yeah, a bit weird and not quite my style, but to each their own!

I feel the same about Modern Art. For example, this piece is in Ottawa.



I don't get it. Why is this worth millions?

 

[Lesley Wake]

Sounds like you had a nice morning with your brother! Though I'm sorry your parents ended up getting frustrated with you.

Beautiful pics of Notre Dame!

I think it was more mom being worried and exhausted. But once we got out of the cathedral, and realized it wasn't our fault (my phone could send/receive texts - it was Dad's silly phone plan that didn't work well), she was fine.

I am with you on the art. Part of me thinks the reason I didn't love Paris is because we went to like no less than 3 art muesums a day in an 8 day stretch, except for the one day we went to Versailles. I LOVED Versailles. I would have been fine with just going to the Louvre and calling it a day. I did however enjoy Notre Dame! I agree though, you don't need a ton of time to view it.

I don't hate art, modern art is just a bit weird for me! I did love Musee d'Orsay, and in the Louvre I cared more about sculpture and artifacts more than paintings. Orangerie was also good and didn't take too much time.

I love French bakery yum!

Glad you got to see the library with the very interesting architecture, wow!

I have been to Paris, never saw that!

Glad your family all found each other, even with a little drama lol!

Yeah, always drama! Afterwards we realized we couldn't really count on texting to meet up, so would come up with a time/place as an alternate!

The engineering building here at Queen's University has a similar concept. When you go inside you can see the skeleton as you described.

I feel the same about Modern Art. For example, this piece is in Ottawa.

View attachment 339444

I don't get it. Why is this worth millions?

That building must have been built after I visited! I got into both Queens and McGill and did visits of both when we realized my first choice university in the US would have cost $40,000/year! Queens was nice, but I preferred living in Montreal!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

That building must have been built after I visited! I got into both Queens and McGill and did visits of both when we realized my first choice university in the US would have cost $40,000/year! Queens was nice, but I preferred living in Montreal!

It was built in 2004. Here's a link to information on the building. I remember thinking how neat it was when I first walked through it.https://www.queensu.ca/encyclopedia/b/beamish-munro-hall

Montreal would definitely be the more interesting city to live in overall as Kingston is "small town" but I do love Queen's.

 

[Lesley Wake]

It was built in 2004. Here's a link to information on the building. I remember thinking how neat it was when I first walked through it.https://www.queensu.ca/encyclopedia/b/beamish-munro-hall

Montreal would definitely be the more interesting city to live in overall as Kingston is "small town" but I do love Queen's.

Ah, yes then that would have been a year after I visited (graduated high school in 2003). Now, I vaguely remember the engineering building being under construction...

 

[xlsm]

which is known as the street in Paris with the most high-end patisseries

Annnd sold! Sounds like the perfect location to me!

Croissant Count: 1, Crepe Count: 0

i love that this exists

Yeah, I'm a weirdo!

I'm a weirdo too. I generally take pictures of cemeteries and not a wall-o-hangin'-rats, but that is just not something I stumble upon frequently. If given the opportunity, I'm there.

There is also an Archaeological Crypt of Notre Dame underneath the square in front of Notre Dame, but unfortunately we didn't visit it because it's closed on Mondays.

Notre Dame is beautiful, I love the pictures inside. That stained glass, wow! The crypt tour sounds cool (I googled it b/c you say the word "crypt" and I'm automatically intrigued), I'm sorry you missed out on that.

I'm glad someone stepped in to help your dad out. Teaching DH and the kids to just keep walking in situations like that was tough, I think they've finally gotten ok with it after San Francisco. It makes me feel like a jerk sometimes, because I naturally want to talk to people and help, but then I remind myself the need for it.

Sorry your parents were snappy and your mom wasn't feeling awesome. I'm sure the transition after a long flight was tough, so hopefully that was the worst of it and it was smooth sailing from there.

I am LOVING hearing about this trip!

 

[amazingact21]

It was originally designed in 1971 and is truly revolutionary, with its basic skeleton exposed

When I first saw the photo, I thought the building was under construction. Had no idea it was intentionally built that way. Interesting!

So, I don't really get Modern & Contemporary Art.

Neither do I. You summed up my feelings when you said, "Now, this is just blue paint."

There was one incident where my dad was almost pick-pocketed by a bunch of people who suddenly surrounded him trying to get him to sign a petition. Mom and Lauren knew to just keep walking and say no forcefully, but Dad can be too gullible and stopped. Luckily a French businessman knew what was happening and rushed over to get the pick-pocketers to leave him alone! (Thankfully that ended up being the only real incident with attempted theft on our trip.)

Thank goodness that businessman stopped the pickpocketers! That kind of stuff is awful in most of the big European cities. The worst was Rome, I felt like I swimming through a sea of peddlers every time I went out.
So I'm really, really glad to hear you didn't have more instances like this. That could have put a serious damper on the trip.

As she was sitting there she just kept hearing and seeing convoys of armed cars driving around and soldiers with assault rifles

On one hand, I understand and appreciate the extra protection, on the other hand it can be nerve wracking to see.


The outside of Notre Dame looked beautiful. Sorry you couldn't climb up to the top, though.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Annnd sold! Sounds like the perfect location to me!

I know! I actually had a bunch of them bookmarked on my maps, so I could try and hit them all!

The crypt tour sounds cool (I googled it b/c you say the word "crypt" and I'm automatically intrigued), I'm sorry you missed out on that.

Yeah, I considered if I was over there on when it was open, I'd try to stop in, but just never worked out!

You summed up my feelings when you said, "Now, this is just blue paint."

So I'm really, really glad to hear you didn't have more instances like this. That could have put a serious damper on the trip.

Yeah, definitely. I was happy it was just the once and was unsuccessful.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Day 2, Part 2: Sainte-Chapelle & Conciergerie

Next on the itinerary: Sainte-Chapelle, which is conveniently located only a few blocks away from Notre Dame. This definitely isn’t as well known (though gaining in number of tourists), but is a place I highly recommend! It was one of the few places I visited in Paris when I was there in high school, and I knew the rest of the family would like it.


Aside: I realize, most people didn’t read my PTR, so some background: I did a trip to England and France when I was 16 that was organize through my high school – there were 6 kids and my French teacher in the overall tour group. It was very brief – I think 10 days total, including travel days, with 1.5 days in London, a few days in Normandy and Loire Valley, and only 1.5 days in Paris. To make the schedule even more compact, one of my classmates left his passport in the London hotel, so after we “snuck” him into France (due to I having 2 passports with me – American and Canadian, and the border guards being lazy at the ferry crossing and counting # of passports and # of tour group members), we ended up spending several hours on our only full Paris day at the US Embassy getting him a replacement. So, actually on this family trip, even though we were visiting many of the same places I had already visited, I was able to spend more time and see more things!


Ok, end of aside… onto Sainte-Chappelle (which was included in our Museum Pass tickets).

(via Wikipedia). Sainte-Chapelle is a royal chapel within the Palais de la Cite, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century. It is considered a shining example of Gothic architecture, and was commissioned by King Louis IX to house his collections of Passion relics. Although it was damaged during the French Revolution, it was restored in the 19th century and has one of the most extensive 13th-century stained glass collections anywhere in the world.

It is absolutely gorgeous – from the outside it just looks like a stone church.

And you go into the bottom floor, which is pretty ornate already.

But then, you go up a set of narrow spiral stairs on the side, and come out above, and just wow-surrounded by huge stained glass windows which take up all of the walls. The whole upstairs is really awash with light. Pictures definitely do not do it justice.

Oh, and I found a hidden Mickey!

Cont...​

 

[Lesley Wake]

Cont...

After fully admiring the chapel, we headed next door to the Conciergerie (also included in the Museum Pass).

(via Wikipedia) The Conciergerie is another building that, along with the Sainte-Chapelle and Palais de Justice, comprised part of the former royal palace. It was originally part of the living quarters, including a great hall, kitchens, and sessions of parliament. It was used as a residence until 1358, when King Charles V moved across the river to the Louvre Palace, but the Conciergerie remained the place where the country actually was run. He appointed a concierge to run the palace…hence the name “Conciergerie”. In 1391 part of the palace was turned into a prison, and in the 1700s was the main penitentiary of prisoners arrested and later executed in the “Reign of Terror”. More than 2,700 people spent their finals days there before executed by guillotine.

The most famous resident of the prison was Marie Antoinette, where she spent her final weeks. Her cell was later converted into a chapel dedicated to her memory. There is also a monument to Madame Elisabeth of France (King Louis XVI’s sister), who remained besides his family and was also executed, despite having a good reputation amongst the public, and is now viewed as a Catholic martyr.

I think we all found this site to be very interesting. And because it’s not as well-known, there was no wait to get in and not many people walking around. There also was an art exhibit involving water being redirected from the Seine, and I found it interesting how there were HUGE signs warning people not to drink or touch it!

The Hall of Soldiers, Guard's Hall and Kitchens

The prison

A cell which has been turned into a memorial for everyone killed in the Reign of Terror. All of the names and occupations are posted, color coded and with different depths, but I can't remember what the different colors meant (I think some of them were aristocracy, commoner, etc)

Marie Antoinette's chapel and memorial. Something interesting was that Marie Antoinette was actually very ill when she was executed, likely a form of cancer. So, the guillotine spared her a long and suffering death.

The memorial to King Louis XVI and Madame Elisabeth

Marie Antoinette's garden

While it was interesting, I don’t know if I’d fully recommend a separate visit there. I mean if you have the Museum Pass, definitely go for it, as its easy to visit both the Conciergerie and Sainte Chapelle in an hour or two. I don’t know if I’d pay the money out of pocket though (but you can save money by getting a combo Sainte-Chapelle/Conciergerie ticket)…

​

 

[Lesley Wake]

Cont...

After finishing sight-seeing, people were definitely hungry and tired. We decided to head off the Ile de la Cite, as most of the places there are total tourist traps. We ended up heading across the river to check out the café associated with Shakespeare and Company, a historical bookstore. While the café didn’t look like a good option for us, the others did end up checking out the bookstore itself and said it was very interesting (I decided to sit and rest my feet).

Rather than trying to find someplace, anyplace, that would work, we ended up just going into a random restaurant at the end of the block. I think I knew immediately from the menu it was a mistake, but we ended up just sitting it out, and all got little bites to eat. I got a sugar crepe, which was pretty horrible – very burnt and I could only eat a couple bites. Everyone else said their food was mediocre and the overall atmosphere was not the best. So, lesson learned: don’t go to anywhere near Notre Dame unless you do your research first!

Croissants: 1, Crepes: 2 (I forgot to count my dessert crepe at lunch)

Afterwards, we ended up splitting off. Everyone else headed back to the Airbnb, while I went to pick up a metro card. For me, it made the most financial sense, but everyone else decided to rely on getting individual tickets for metro trips (and really, that probably worked out fine for them).

The metro card I got was the Navigo Decouverte, which gives you unlimited travel on metro, trains, busses, and RER for one week (though that week is defined as Monday morning – Sunday evening, not 7 consecutive days). You can pick it up at any metro station (assuming they still have some left), but you need to have a photo of yourself (3 cm x 2.5 cm, which is slightly smaller than a passport photo) – I should have listened to the advice and gotten one printed at home, but instead I found a photo booth in the train station (most stations have them, but the smaller ones may not, and it’s not obvious where they are or if the station even has one, which can be frustrating). Anyways, you buy the Navigo pass (5 euro), and then buy the Decouvrte ticket (22.50 euro). So, if you think you will be doing a lot of travel via metro and RER, you should look into it for your trip. They also have month passes.

Ok, now that was done, I headed back towards the Airbnb, but stopped at Le Bon Marche Rive Gauche, which is a huge department store 2 blocks from our apartment (it’s pretty famous and was built in 1872, with help from Gustave Eiffel, creator of the Eiffel Tower).

I didn’t care about the department store part of it, but on the bottom level is La Grande Epicerie de Paris, a huge food market with gourmet foods. Oh, I could have bought everything in that store! And I loved how the pastries had schematic drawings of what was inside them!

*Lets play a contest, I would end up getting 1 of these pastries before I left Paris…anyone guess which one?

They also had these huge slabs of chocolate, which came with hammers to break through them. I didn't get one though because it was SUPER expensive!

I ended up coming away with 2 baguettes (because, who goes to a French market and doesn’t buy a baguette), some artisan pasta (which we didn’t end up making until last week, but was actually DELICIOUS), and some packets of cookies (which I actually wasn’t too big a fan of). Oh, and I think some bottles of water.

As I walked back to the apartment it started to pour rain, but I got inside before it got too bad.

(Looking at my photos I also realized I stopped at the patisserie downstairs and got a couple macarons, though...shamefully...I forgot about them on the table so the next morning they were too melted to eat!)

I found out Lauren, Joey, and Anthony also had made a pit stop at La Grand Epicerie…and of course they also got a baguette! So for dinner, we ended up snacking on various things around the apartment (baguettes, leftover brioche from breakfast, cookies, etc), before heading to bed.

Well…all except Anthony and Joey. After it stopped raining, they decided to go out and explore a bit (i.e. find a bar). So of course, the skies opened up and an insane thunder and lighting storm rolled through. When they were near the Eiffel Tower… in a patch of dirt, which became a patch of mud! I don’t know if they took any photos (Joey hasn’t had time to upload his into the Amazon Family Vault), but I do know they didn’t get back until 2:30am and were soaked to the bone (so much that their shoes were still pretty soggy the next day). A great idea when I warned everyone we needed to be leaving the apartment at 8am the next morning!


Coming up: Fountains and bugs and train strikes...​

 

[purplelover88]

Excited to be following along! We are taking a trip to Paris as well as DLP next May so I’m paying close attention. Can’t wait to read more.

 

[missangelalexis]

The inside of Sainte-Chappelle is stunning! All that beautiful stained glass!

Mmm all those pastries look delicious! I'm gonna guess you went with the chocolate one!

 

[Pre]

You’re trip is wonderful!! We leave in 8 days and are heading to Germany first then DLP/ Paris. Can I ask what type of Snacks you brought with you on the plane? I’m a picky eater and am worried that what they serve won’t be great or I won’t eat it.

 

[amazingact21]

I'm bookmarking both those sites because they look stunning and encompass the little of French history that I know. I'm not sure if I'll make it back to Paris before I leave, but if I do I definitely want to check those places out. The stained glass was unbelievable.

And the Shakespeare bookstore sounded fun!

I'm gonna say you got the chocolate cake from the store. But that's only because it looked the most delicious to me and I wanna hear if it tasted as amazing as it looked.

Glad you made it back to the rental before the rain got too bad.

 

[Lesley Wake]

You’re trip is wonderful!! We leave in 8 days and are heading to Germany first then DLP/ Paris. Can I ask what type of Snacks you brought with you on the plane? I’m a picky eater and am worried that what they serve won’t be great or I won’t eat it.

Because I knew Earl of Sandwich was in the terminal, I already planned on that. But sometimes for longer flights I’ll go to Subway that morning (or night before) and get a sandwich for the plane. Yes, it’s not as good as fresh, but still better than some of the airline food! You can also check your airport’s website and terminal map to see if there’s a similar sandwhich place there, so at least then it’d be fresher!

I also like to go to Target and check out the candy aisle because they often have a “movie” section with larger boxes/bags of things or larger chocolate bars. I usually like to make sure I have something chocolate, something salty, and something fruity.

Have fun in Europe and feel free to ask him me any other questions about DLP!

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

Joining in! That Cathedral looked absolutely beautiful! I can't wait to read the rest of your trip report since you will probably talk me into going to Disneyland Paris!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Excited to be following along! We are taking a trip to Paris as well as DLP next May so I’m paying close attention. Can’t wait to read more.

Glad to have you! And you should be there for Princess and Pirates, which looked absolutely amazing this year!

The inside of Sainte-Chappelle is stunning! All that beautiful stained glass!

Mmm all those pastries look delicious! I'm gonna guess you went with the chocolate one!

I adore stained glass (I took a weekend class once but never followed up with it to continue) so that was beautiful!

I'm bookmarking both those sites because they look stunning and encompass the little of French history that I know. I'm not sure if I'll make it back to Paris before I leave, but if I do I definitely want to check those places out. The stained glass was unbelievable.

And the Shakespeare bookstore sounded fun!

I'm gonna say you got the chocolate cake from the store. But that's only because it looked the most delicious to me and I wanna hear if it tasted as amazing as it looked.

Glad you made it back to the rental before the rain got too bad.

Yeah definitely try and get there! I’ll also have a couple other French history sites (some known, some more unknown) so maybe you’ll get enough inspiration to make another trip!

And interesting, 2 guesses for chocolate!

Joining in! That Cathedral looked absolutely beautiful! I can't wait to read the rest of your trip report since you will probably talk me into going to Disneyland Paris!

I’m such a bad influence!